STD Carriers, I discriminate so stay in hiding!

STDs are a BIG no-no in my book.  My fear of contracting one is one of the reasons why some might call me a sexual prude.

Actually, I used to wonder what people with STDs looked like.  Of course I know that STDs don't change your physical appearance...for the most part...but I've always been curious to see how the infections affect human behavior.

1.  Do people with STDs dress more conservatively to cover up the "shame?"

2.  Do they dress more raunchy to over-compensate for their "shame?"

3.  Are they self-conscious and thus, a bit quieter or introverted?

4.  Do STD carriers walk around without concern and ready for their next "hoo-rah?"

Whatever the answer, I know if I ever contracted an STD, even if it was treatable, I'd be devastated.  There would be a noticeable hermit/self-esteem effect.

Of all the STDs, I fear Herpes the most & I don't care if it's simplex I or II! These days, with unprotected oral sex on the rise, it really doesn't matter which you have.  Both simplexes can be passed to and from the mouth and genitals.  

So, the minute I see a blister or red marks all around your lips, EXPECT a change in behavior.  I'll still like you and be friends if you're a good person, but don't stare at my water bottle and then ask me for a sip.  You're thirsty and you have herpes?  Where's your bottle then?  You know it's contagious, right?

My answer to your inquiry:

"No" or "I'll SAVE you some"

I still love you, though.  I actually have a friend who contracted a treatable STD a few months ago.  I'm happy for him that it was temporary because I wouldn't want him to go through the rest of his life with that insecurity.  Also, I really didn't care because he's still a good person, and, honestly, I'm not ever having sex with him so why should I care.

Be well

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Scratch and Sniff

Trends via TrendHunter.com.

We talked about sex!



Now let's talk about the side effects... STI's:

First...some OH SO SEXY stats (taken from the American Social Health Association )

-More than half of all people will have an STD/STI at some point in their lifetime.

-The estimated total number of people living in the US with a viral STD/STI is over 65 million. Every year, there are at least 19 million new cases of STDs/STIs, some of which are curable.

-Each year, one in four teens contracts an STD/STI.

-One in two sexually active persons will contact an STD/STI by age 25.

-It is estimated that as many as one in five Americans have genital herpes, a lifelong (but manageable) infection, yet up to 90 percent of those with herpes are unaware they have it.

-With more than 50 million adults in the US with genital herpes and up to 1.6 million new infections each year, some estimates suggest that by 2025 up to 40% of all men and half of all women could be infected.

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WHAT THE HELL?! This is some scary SHIT. 65 Million people have them!!! By 2025 – 40% of the population could have herpes!!! WTF. Seriously people….we need to work on this. Use condoms ALL THE TIME. I don’t care if its your boyfriend of three years…and you trust him. USE A DAMN CONDOM. Get tested every 2 or 3 months! I have heard horror stories of women who get AIDs/Herpes from their husbands (and vica versa…equal opportunity diseases) and can’t understand why. All it takes is for them to cheat once and not tell you…and tada…shiny new gift.

I’m really scared…like …devastatingly scared. I haven’t had sex in YEARS (my friends won't believe it...but its true!) and I don’t plan on it because of all of the fear involved. You can protect yourself only so much. For instance…while researching the statistics above…I came across a board for people who have herpes (I googled Trojan STD Commercials) and they were outraged that some of these commercials stated that simply using a condom can prevent herpes. IT DOESN’T! WHAT THE HELL!? Herpes is transmitted through skin to skin contact. So…unless you’re using a full body condom…there’s a high chance your privates may still touch an infected area. Never having sex again…just gonna buy a vibrator or something…they don’t give you herpes!

Be safe readers...

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Uh...What is ALL THAT down there???

GROSS!!! One of the few times I'm NOT 110% proud to be a New Yorker. According to a study last year, more than 1 in 4 New Yorkers have HERPES. Not the innocent mouth one you get from kissing your parents and sharing a soda with your BFF. I mean the YUCKY one that pops up all over your junk. The ones that make your ish a Hot Zone with that ill burn.

Son. You nasty.



Scariest part of that study though, more than 80% of the people infected don't even know they have The Herps. This goes for a lot of other STIs, too, like HIV. Which is why I give every guy at the clubs the side eye. Do YOU have something?!

Son. You don't even KNOW you're nasty.

Like the father-in-law said in The Hangover,
"What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Except herpes. That shit stays with you."

8th grade health class was really scary. First, that was when I learned exactly WHERE things are supposed to go to make a baby. (Yes, I didn't fully understand 'til 13. Much more innocent times then.) Second, the pictures the teacher showed us of gonorrhea, genital warts, etc. REALLY F'd me up in the head. That stuff was NASTY. I won't post those pics up here but holla at the links. (O geez. I almost threw up looking them up.) And folks, Crabs are actually pubic lice. If you have them, it means you are DIRTY.

Ok. So what do you do if people don't even know they have any STIs (sexually transmitted infections) until the symptoms start coming in?

CONDOMS, people. WRAP it up. THEN get down.

As appealing as raw doggin' it can be, I have to REALLY trust the person and I would have to be ready for that baby. Ain't love a person like that yet.

TRUST is more than being ok with hearing "O baby, I'm clean." I need to see the test results. Yes. PLEASE GET TESTED. Symptoms aren't always apparent so get tested regularly. And don't skimp when you go in. If you tryna ball, go for the works. Get the blood work done. Get ya swab on. This goes for all the gents AND the ladies. No one is immune.

People, condoms don't work 100% of the time. They break. Some jizz can jump the wall even if they don't break. So if you're not ready to infect someone with your seed or if you don't want to be infected with someone's seed, then take some extra precautions. NO. I do NOT mean double cap Jimmy. That makes the condom tear. I mean, use other methods of birth control in conjunction with a condom. Spermicide. The Pill. The Shot. The Patch. Get vaccinated. There are others as well.

For those of you think "O well I don't let them hit. I just go down on them." News to you: STIs don't stay down there. You can gonorrhea up your face. Genital warts can appear on your face, too, and pretty much anywhere else if that's where the infested genitals touched. Condoms. Dental Dams. Be safe, folks. Some things out there can really mess you up for life.

And if you find yourself with something, there is a sure fire thing that helps stop the spread. It's called the RESPONSIBILITY PILL. Take it. It means, call up people you messed around with and let them know that you have something and they should get tested, too. Difficult calls, I'm sure. But, it's the right thing to do.

Personal choice: I need to see RECENT STI test results before anyone can put it on me.

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1000 (Stupid) Ways to Die

Always wear clean underwear....

You know how your grandma always told you that...in case you crashed or died...You know...wouldnt want people looking at streaks. Well...I'm less concerned about the cleanliness of my Vickies when I'm DEAD! If I could worry though...I'd be more interested in what I was doing when I died. Was I on the crapper (Hi Elvis!)? Was I...hanging in a closet with my genitals bound (David Carradine)? Too soon...I know....

I stand by this though....Natural Selection is our friend.

Despite nature having a way to remove the ....lesser members of our society (hey...dont judge me... yell at mother nature!)...we have made advances in medicine to keep them around...

Before you begin hating me... I bring this up because I was watching one of my new favorite shows "1000 Ways to Die" and as usual...found myself wondering how these idiots made it as far as they did in life. Yes...this show details real people who have died...(many of them just simply being dumb...but some unfortunate ones) and discusses how they died.

Sometimes...I laugh...

Weed Wacked SpikeTV SPIKE.com

Sometimes...I feel sorry for the person...and their unfortunate circumstance...

Lesbocution SpikeTV SPIKE.com

More often than not though, I laugh.

I mean...if you haven't seen this show...watch it. You'd be AMAZED at the stupid shit that people do and die from. Here are some MORE clips (cuz I know you're dying to see more! <3).>

Window Pained SpikeTV SPIKE.com

Kill-Do SpikeTV SPIKE.com

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THE Illest HANGOVER everrr!!!!

O. My. Gawd.

THE HANGOVER

...funniest movie I've seen...if not EVER...then in a REALLY LONG TIME!!!



How can you NOT watch this one? Bachelor party in Las Vegas gone extreeeeemely wrong. Except no one can remember any of it. And they dun lost the damn groom!

Time for some alliteration:

Boobs. Bush. Benz. Booze. Ballin'. Beasts. Brothers. Baby. Boxer. Bets. Bangin'. Bitches. Bootin'. Bare Butts. Babes. BJs. Blackmail. Balls. Brazen. Bad Boys. Burglary. Bellies. Broads. Buffoonery. Bunghole-ness. Bachelors Behaving Badly.

BAM BAM BAM!!! COMEDY! BANG!

From start to finish, it was AWESOME. They even threw in some heartfelt stuff in there. But don't worry, that was kept at a minimum. All three of those moments literally went like this:

O AWWWW..how sweet.. wait.. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

There weren't a lot of giggle moments. There were hella GUFFAW sessions!!! I don't think there was more than a four to five minute lapse between laughs.

I can't stress enough how hilarious this movie is.

I hate hype around movies. I usually only use them as gauges for whether or not I should spend a grip on a movie I had already thought about seeing. I don't use it to tell me WHAT movies to see. That initial decision to take any movie in consideration comes from movie trailers. I look for substance, people. Popularity contests stay in the school yard. I'm grown. I have a mind of my own. You can only do your worst to convince me.

But damn! You can't go wrong when EVERY review (whether from a pro critic or lil tweets on twitter) says it's the funniest movie ever!

What does it have? All types of humor. Slap stick (of which there are plenty). Racial (lightly so). Dark (some very o damn moments). Witty (no doubt). Crude (um, hell yea!).

I'm telling you. Watch this one. You won't regret it.

Holla.



My love for this gem of a comedy:


If you want more:


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Ugly "Face" but U "Tweet" Well? ...I'll Still Holla

Two months ago I hated Twitter. I also thought MySpace was the sketchiest website I'd heard of since BP (the "right" people will already know what BP was).  I saw Twitter as a silly website devoted to Facebook status updates and thought, "Why?! ... how original." I wasn't buying the news reports saying that it would be the next wave in communication or news dissemination.

And MySpace?  Oh, that site was purely a hookup destination where the loneliest and horniest people gathered under the pretense of networking.  

No, even though I started accounts on both Twitter and MySpace, I was not in any way compelled to use them.  Facebook, was my one-stop destination where I could chat with the people I know (with real birth names), check status updates, wish people Happy Birthday, and look at/post pictures and links.   I was probably near addicted to the site.

...Boy have things changed!  I rarely log in to Facebook these days, and when I do, it's strictly to accomplish task A and B.  Done.  Log out. 

"What?!  What's your problem? ...Oh, Facebook says it's your birthday?  Guess what, I wouldn't know and no longer care."

I'm not going so far as to say I hate Facebook, but since they made the latest major layout change back in April, I just haven't found any appeal to the site.  The layout changes made an already complex site more confusing and harder to maneuver.  Click this link to see photo updates.  Click here to see links posted by friends.  Click here to see notes.  No, I liked having one simple stream of data that updated on the home page.  

Just as my disapproval of Facebook's "clutter" began to grow, I decided to try Twitter out again and promote this blog, The RGC.  In doing so, I finally realized the power and appeal of the site.  Unlike Facebook, where info is restricted to approved friends, everyone has access to info and updates of Twitter.  You can reach out to strangers and bypass all the BS updates and staged photo albums that were consuming your time on Facebook.   Furthermore, the networking power of the site is ridiculous, as people with like interests will post on similar topics and, through Twitter's search feature, are drawn to each other.  

Twitter recently added a feature called "Trending Topics" which is incredible to me.  It lists the top subjects people are tweeting about, and is surprisingly a great news/happening update service.  I found out about Air France, Eminem & Bruno, and the Kobe & Lebron puppet commercials all from clicking on the trending topic links to see what was popular.

Facebook is becoming simply a vanity site.  It's selfish, people trying to make themselves as interesting/awesome as possible and only involves people you already know.  Honestly, I don't know how I got sucked into that mess because acquaintances are acquaintances for a reason.  I don't need to know everything about your life and you don't need to know about mine.  Trust me, I'm more than happy to reconnect with old friends, but my interest in them and sharing my life is dwindling.  As you grow older you realize that too much info is mind clutter and that the past should sometimes remain a pleasant memory.

With Facebook, however, the damage has already been done.  Now every student or recent graduate has a plethora of pictures tagged or untagged circulating on the Internet, waiting to come back to haunt you when you least expect it.  You can only hope friends didn't snap away and post the really bad ones.   

As for MySpace, as a musician, I've come to realize the value of the site - discovering, connecting, and previewing new talent.  I've already made VERY real connections on MySpace (and Twitter) so I'm shedding my initial dark judgement and frequenting the site a bit more.  

Perhaps how I feel will change, but for now I'm rapidly moving forward with Twitter and MySpace and leaving the overflowing mind-dump of Facebook behind...gradually.

Be Well.

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*Highlights* - UP Up and AWAY! Afterwards...

UP!
It was almost a full house when I went to go see it in 3D! Man, those tickets are EXPENSIVE. My wallet is in SHOCK right now.

But anyway...UP was a REALLY cute movie. Now, I don't know how much of a children's movie it is though. It's a little heavy for young kids. I see the appeal for children. Flying house. Zillions of balloons. Talking dogs. Funny birds.

But dreams and dealing with dashed dreams...it's a little much for the yung'uns. The whole movie jumped back and forth between cute and melancholy pretty consistently. Jerkin tears from lots of folks around me.

Overall, it wasn't what I expected. I expected more slap sticky kiddie fun. Definitely had that element but doesn't seem to be what it's aiming for. People have told me it's a sad movie but I was thinking "Ok, so like at the end?" No. That cloud was lurking at every corner. (Speaking of clouds, the short at the beginning, "Partly Cloudy," was so awww sweet!) The 3D parts...I was expecting like ZOOM! POW! ZIP!!! PEW!!! Not a lot of that actually. Makes me wonder if it was really worth paying $16.50 for it instead of the $12.50 for the regular screen. But the graphics were still visually amazing, especially the shots of the photos.



I still liked the movie a lot because, taking away all the hype and all the pretenses, the movie was genuinely a really strong movie. I can empathize with some of the characters and the realness of the stories while still maintaining a certain purity and innocence that allows for a happy ending. Who doesn't love happy endings?!

I can go a little deeper in the analysis, too. I mean the movie is called UP but the whole time, they're racing against time and running into obstacles that keep the house from staying up. Old, young. Childhood dreams, old age missions. Holding on, letting go. Living in the past, starting anew. Disappointments, heros. Duality and parallelism! I love it!

My final rating for the movie:

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*Highlights* Hot Damn! This Dude Can Fly!

Simply amazing! Watch the whole thing...it gets better and better!


I know this dude is a trained gymnast...which makes me jealous as hell because I was considered too tall (and clumsy) for gymnastics...but he's taking it to the extreme in this video. Amazing stunts...amazing everything!

He even STRIPS while flipping at one point- pants and shirt come off. I keep rewinding...PERVS! I'm trying to see how he manages to get the pants off...jeez.

Love this video!




5/5 SOMEONE discover this dude! Give him a movie!

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*Highlights* - On the LOOKout: Music's Rising Stars

Mishal Moore, Young Ivy, Vaughn Anthony - Do these names ring a bell? If not, they probably will by the end of this year. Be on the LOOkout:

Mishal Moore

This Florida native turned NY/NJ resident is best described as a true original. While her vocal stylings could possibly be likened to a fusion between Jill Scott's soul power and Billie Holiday's delicate simplicity, Mishal Moore has developed a sound all her own. Her lyrics are pensive. Her passion, evident. Her talent, overflowing.

If you've been waiting for the revival of real music, Mishal may be your savior, as she is gearing up for a late June release of her new single, "Oh Lord." Click Here to view her MySpace and hear some track samples. With musical inspirations spanning across all genres, Mishal's songs have a vivacity and sincerity reminiscent of 60s & 70s era classic tunes. Assisted by mega-talented, funk-inspired producer Kenny Dope, Mishal is quickly approaching her time to shine, and her style is GOING to inspire future artists.

Mishal Moore has been featured on numerous Mix tape albums and recorded a few EPs of her own in the past. 2009, however, could and should be her year. She's got stellar everything: team, talent, material, appeal, and personality. Be on the lookout for this emerging star - Mishal Moore.

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/mishalmmoore

Vaughn Anthony

With tracks like "Yell" and "In Your Shoes" that are sure to blow up, Vaughn is proving to the world that talent runs in the Stephens family. He's heard all the comments about his strikingly similar sound to John Legend, but Vaughn embraces the noise and casually defers to the fact that they both have the same genetics. Yes, he may be John Legend's little brother, but this guy is first and foremost a singer!



On Thursday, May 14, 2009, Vaughn Anthony was officially introduced to the music scene with a showcase performance at S.O.B.'s in NY. His vocal prowess was in full effect and he left industry executives with an indelible impression.

Whereas brother John Legend embraces a GQ style, Vaughn's is simply "urban" and a bit more accessible. He has wide appeal because of his at once soulful, hip hop, church, unapologetic, and smooth vocal quality. He honestly cannot be completely categorized, and that could work very well for Mr. Vaughn Anthony. Visit Vaughn's MySpace page to see a list of touring dates and listen to tracks from his recently released EP, "Mr. Everything." To say the least, Vaughn Anthony's songs are refreshing and...good. Period.

*Vaughn Anthony, like British sensation Estelle, is signed to John Legend's "Homeschool Records" label.

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/vaughnanthony1

Young Ivy

Tunisian roots, raised in Sweden and the Cali Bay area, ...oh, and he's Ivy League educated. Young Ivy may not sound like the typical rapper, because in fact, he is not! Young Ivy's approach to the game is educated, raw, relentless, and unglamorous.



Sure, he's been wracking up female fans in colleges across America, but it's his lyrics that go hard. He's out to make you rock your head, get in a zone, and drop some knowledge on today's one-hit wonder rap scene. From bangers like "Turn Heads" to his chart climbing "Shirt Off" track, Young Ivy is just doing it - INTERNATIONALLY.

He's teamed up with very talented Swedish producers and come up with an international vibe & style that is sure to be well received. Young Ivy is calling his latest musical evolution "Euro-trash" because of its heavy beat, house music, trance feel. While it definitely has an international/European vibe, trash has never sounded this good. Ivy is unconventional, lyrically charming and beyond creative.

Young Ivy loves Hip Hop. True Hip Hop fans are already discovering and falling in love with Young Ivy.

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/youngivy

This new class of music artists is coming in strong and definitely gets high marks:

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*Highlights* - UP Up and AWAY!

Okay. I haven't seen UP yet. But I will today. I've heard good things about it. I've wanted to see it since I saw a theatrical preview for it a while back.



I HATE expecting a certain level of entertainment from a movie that has been surrounded by a lot of hype. I've been sorely disappointed before. It's really difficult not to get caught up in the hype though.

But, just going from my initial excitement for it months ago, the projected personal enjoyment level is:


A review to come later today.

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